P&F Industries 4: Baljeet and the Superchicken
by EDD17SP
Summary: Everything happens for a reason, right? So what possible explanation could there be for Baljeet joyriding in a '77 Pontiac Trans Am? Perry goes shopping with Doofenshmirtz and regrets it. Includes some "different" Phinabella. Buford/Baljeet friendship ONLY!
1. Prolouge

**Disclaimer: I do not own Phineas and Ferb or any of the songs used, or the movies mentioned: ****_Smokey and the Bandit_**** and ****_Ferris Bueller's Day Off_****. Do not attempt any of the driving described here at home. There is no guarantee it will work the way I wrote it and you'll probably get arrested.**

**If you have not read "P&F Industries #1: The Mustang," "#2: El Camino de calle traviesa," or "#3: Night on the Riviera" this story will make no sense.**

Prologue

_Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - 3:17pm_

"See?" Buford said among a fit of laughter. "This is exactly the reason why I came along. 'Cause I knew you would screw up!"

"I fail to see how this is in anyway humorous," Baljeet snapped back at him.

"Dude, this is freakin' hilarious!" Buford snickered.

Baljeet slumped forward into the steering wheel with embarrassment, his forehead causing the horn to blare until he finally picked up his head.

"What are we going to do?" the Indian teen asked frantically.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean we?" Buford said, holding up his hands defensively. "I told you not to do it, but you insisted. This is all on you, shrimplet."

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Well?"

Baljeet turned and faced the bully. "Well, what?"

"Are we just gonna sit here or are we goin' back to the garage? I got work to do."

Baljeet sighed and reached for the key in the ignition. The engine had stalled out in the collision. The starter cranked, but the engine refused to turn over.

"Dude, you're gonna flood it."

"I am not going to flood it!"

"Yes, you are."

"Then you do it!"

Baljeet leaned back into the driver's seat so Buford could reach the key.

"Fine! I'll show you how it's done."

Buford grabbed the key and twisted it forward. The starter spun, and it slowly became slower, and slower, until it eventually stopped cranking at all.

Buford released the key. "Huh." They stared out the windshield at the damaged front end of the car and the tree it had become embedded in. Finally, Buford opened the passenger door and climbed out into the freezing air. "I guess we'll have to push it," he said. "Roll your window down when you get out." He shut the door.

Baljeet could not believe it. How could he have done something this stupid?


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_Thursday, July 10, 2014 - 11:32am_

"Ferb!" Phineas called up the giant structure that stretched forty stories tall. Ferb leaned over the edge from his point on level 32 and looked down at his brother. "Did you hook up the thing-a-magummy to the watcha mahosit?"

Ferb gave a thumbs up.

"Awesome!"

"Phineas?" Isabella, who was holding on to one end of the long control panel she and Baljeet were carrying, asked, "Where does this thing go again?"

"In the room with the virtual reality simulation chamber," he responded.

Isabella and Baljeet started to walk toward the door to the elevator on the front of the building, but stopped when they heard something echoing across the suburbs. Ferb descended the edifice to the ground on a cable just beside them.

"Do you hear that?" Phineas asked. They all nodded in response.

"Sounds like an engine, and a very loud one at that," said Baljeet. "It could be Steve."

"The sound in question is not the 358 cubic inch supercharged V-8 that can only be the FR-9 engine of Steve Marcis's 1970 Ford Mustang," Ferb said, using up his one line for the day. Everyone stared at him blankly.

"Awfully specific there, bro," Phineas quipped. "How can you tell just from the sound that that isn't Steve?"

Ferb shrugged. "Well, it doesn't sound like his car. It's a higher pitch."

The sound grew closer, close enough to be on their street now, and it was joined now by another, slightly quieter engine. There was a squeal of rubber on asphalt and a few seconds later, both engines became silent. A few moments later, Steve and Buford entered through the side gate.

"Hey, guys," Buford said.

"How go things in these parts?" Steve asked. He was dressed as usual, save for two striking details. First, he had traded his ever-present white Ford Racing cap for a light brown cowboy hat with a gold band. Second, he had grown a mustache on his upper lip that matched his forever hidden dark brown hair.

"What's with the new look?" Isabella asked.

"Oh, the hat?" he asked.

"Well, I was really referring to the mustache, but, yeah, that too," she replied.

"Why don't you guys follow me out to the front yard? Then you'll understand."

Isabella and Baljeet gently set the control panel on the grass and then the five teens followed Steve out the side gate and down the driveway.

"Behold," Steve said, motioning with his hand at the glistening black car parked by the curb in front of the house, "The Superchicken."

"Huh?" Phineas wondered aloud.

"Okay, it's a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am, but I call it the Superchicken."

"I do not know about you guys," Baljeet said to Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb, "But that does not clear anything up for me."

They walked up to the car. The sports car was all black with intricate gold pin striping around the windows, head and taillights, valence and rear spoiler. The same gold striping created the outline of a symmetrical bird with it's wings spread wide adorning the hood just below the hood scoop. Buford's refurbished El Camino, also painted a mirror-like black, was parked just behind it.

"See the bird on the hood?" Steve said pointing. Baljeet nodded. "Superchicken."

"Ohhhhhh," the four responded.

"Yeah," Steve said. "There was this TV show a few years back…can't remember what it was called…anyway, they had a Trans Am on the show and they called it "The Superchicken" and I thought it was a cool nickname, so mine is too."

"Oh, so that's where you guys went this morning," Phineas said.

"Yeah," Buford spoke up, "I had to drive him up to Badgertown to pick this thing up."

Isabella said, "That still doesn't answer my question. Why the cowboy hat and mustache?"

"Oh, right. One of my favorite movies is _Smokey and the Bandit_. This car is exactly like the Trans Am in the movie. Burt Reynolds's character, The Bandit, has a mustache and wears a cowboy hat like this, so, since I was picking this car up today, I figured I would dress for the occasion," Steve explained. "Plus, how would I look driving this Pontiac with a Ford hat? It's just wrong."

"You and Buford didn't restore this car, then," Phineas said, which was a statement, not a question.

"No. This car is fairly rare. The odds of finding one to restore would have been practically impossible, so I just bought one that was up for auction. Now," Steve said, pointing over the house at the towering structure in the backyard, "What the heck is that?"

* * *

A lot happened in the time between Steve's acquisition of the Trans Am in July and the present.

* * *

For one, Phineas and Ferb raised some money for their own personal gain, which they don't usually do, and used the money to pay Steve for a car restoration. The Dodge Intrepid they shared was fine, but they found the need to each have their own cars more and more as they grew closer to their senior year of high school. One morning, they showed up outside "Boyd's Garage" with a beat up '69 Chevelle.

"Where the heck did you find that?" Steve asked them.

"Since they're so rare today, we went back in time to 1982 and went to a junk yard the day someone came to scrap it and rescued it so you could restore it for us," Phineas explained breathlessly.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "If you can go back in time, why not just go back to 1969, go to a dealership and buy a brand new one?"

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other, then back at Steve.

"That would have made sense, wouldn't it?" Phineas muttered.

"Uh, yeah!" Steve mocked.

"Well, we got it here, and now you can make some money restoring it for us, anyway."

Steve looked at it with a sort of longing expression on his face. "I have always wanted to work on a Chevelle…okay, Buford and I will get right on it."

And that is how Phineas and Ferb got their red-and-black Chevelle.

* * *

Eventually, the summer came to an end, and Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford had to return to school for their senior year and Candace flew back to college in California.

Buford, unable to help Steve during the day now, would head to the garage directly after school for work. Feeling like they were losing touch with their friend the bully, who was always working, the rest of the gang would drop by the shop after school to check out the latest Marcis/Van Stomm project.

Eventually, "Boyd's Garage" became the gang's after school hang out. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella and Baljeet would sit around a large table that Steve had in the corner of the garage and do their homework while Steve and Buford were hard at work on whatever car they were currently restoring.

As the year progressed, though, differing schedules with after school activities meant that most of the time, the group was not whole, or some would arrive later than others. Never the less, at least once a week, all six were together.

A new car was in the shop to be worked on every two to four days and selling them was never a problem. Occasionally, they were hired to restore a specific car for someone. Business was good for Steve. However, on the occasion that there was no car being restored, Steve and Buford began building a 1963 Ford Galaxy from the ground up for Steve's personal "collection." They painted it to match the Galaxy that the Wood Brother's NASCAR team fielded with Tiny Lund as the driver in the 1963 Daytona 500, adorning the doors and roof of the white-and-red car with the famous number "21."

Suddenly, Steve found himself out of room to store vehicles, what with a '70 Mustang, '77 Trans Am, and '63 Galaxy, none of which he wanted to leave out in the elements. So, he hired Phineas and Ferb to build him a little garage behind the shop strictly for parking his cars.

And that brings us back to present day, Tuesday November 25, 2014.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - 2:55pm_

Baljeet braked his gray Honda Civic to a stop in front of Steve's garage, unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out of the car. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat and headed for the front door to enter since the large garage doors were all closed against the cold. The sight of a black, salt covered El Camino parked to the side told Baljeet that Buford had beaten him there, as usual.

Winter had come early in 2014, and it was a harsh one. Thanksgiving was still two days away and there had already been three snowstorms, the most recent one coming last night. The snow ended in the wee hours of the morning, giving plows plenty of time to clear the streets before buses had to pick up kids for school. Snow from the previous storms had not melted, though, and therefore it was piled high everywhere pavement was not.

Baljeet entered the garage through the door to Steve's apartment and was hit by a welcome blast of hot air. The thermometer on his car dash had only read 16 degrees. He trudged through Steve's little apartment and entered the shop, where Buford was hard at work already with Steve. They were attaching a snowplow to the front of Steve's old pickup truck. A 1968 Dodge Coronet sat on the car lift in the next garage stall, stripped of paint and missing nearly every mechanical part.

"Hey, Baljeet," Buford called, catching sight of his best friend. Steve, lying on the concrete floor with his top half beneath the truck, stuck one arm out and gave a half-wave.

"Buf, hand me that 7/16 wrench, please," Steve requested, holding his open hand out to Buford. The bully placed the wrench in Steve's hand, and the arm disappeared.

"What are you two doing?" Baljeet asked.

"Replacin' the brake lines on an Oldsmobile 442," Buford said with a straight face.

"Really? Because it appears that you are attaching a snowplow to Steve's truck."

"Duh! Did you need to ask?"

Baljeet's face gained a sheepish look. He walked over to the table in the corner and placed his bag on it as Steve pulled himself out from under the '96 F-150's front bumper.

"Alright, done!" he said, standing up and dusting his hands off. "I'm gonna go pick up the exhaust system for the Coronet," he told Buford. "While I'm gone…" he dug a set of keys out of his pocket and handed them to Buford. "…Pull the Trans Am in here and put the new air cleaner on."

"On it, boss." Buford left through the back door.

Steve opened the garage door in front of his truck and walked back. "Are Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella coming, or is it just you today, Baljeet?"

Baljeet looked up from his homework, which he was already halfway finished with. "They will be here a little later," he said. "Preparations for the school play started recently and Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella volunteered to help build the sets."

"'Kay," Steve responded. "It's a half hour drive to pick up these parts, so I'll see you in a little while."

"Goodbye."

Baljeet watched as the old Ford truck started and pulled out of the garage. A few seconds later, Buford pulled the glistening Trans Am in through the open door.

Buford climbed out of the car and closed the garage door before walking over to Baljeet. "So?"

Baljeet looked up at Buford. "'So,' what?"

"What did they do today?"

Baljeet sighed. Being bullied during your senior year of high school was not something that really happened. Unless, of course, you happen to be Baljeet Tjinder.

In the years since they were ten, Buford's bullying of Baljeet had diminished more and more. About the only thing Buford did to the Indian teen now was tease him and call him names, which at this point were really just nicknames. There were no more wedgies, noogies, or other various forms of physical torture from the burly teen.

Unfortunately, the less Buford bullied Baljeet, the more new bullies did. On any given day since the beginning of senior year, as many as seven jocks from miscellaneous school sports teams would corner Baljeet, usually in the school parking lot, which is why Buford always got to the garage before his foreign friend.

Over the years, Phineas and Ferb had tried a number of times to invent something for Baljeet to protect him from his tormentors. And, unlike anything else they've ever built, every plan backfired horribly.

Buford had tried to help, too, and even though he was still the toughest kid in school, he could not beat up seven jocks at once. The odds were against him.

"Well," Baljeet started, "Today they started by pants-ing me…and not just my pants, either."

Buford raised an eyebrow. "You sayin' you're goin' commando right now?"

Baljeet shut his eyes. "They stole my underwear."

"Dude…harsh."

"Let me tell you, cold air is even colder down in that general vicinity. And then, they made me watch as they keyed my car," Baljeet added.

"Well, that ain't so bad," Buford said. "Steve can touch up the paint for you."

"They keyed it so many times, it looks like a farmer's freshly tilled field."

Buford fell silent for a moment, and then said, "You really gotta start standin' up to these guys. You can't just let 'em keep doing this to you, Baljeet."

Baljeet sighed. "I've tried that, remember?"

"Oh, yeah."

Buford walked over to the Superchicken and raised the hood. It would only take a few minutes to swap out the air cleaner.

Baljeet watched Buford for a moment and then let his eyes drift down the length of the car. He stood, strolled hesitantly over to the black car, and ran his hand along the door.

Baljeet never understood what made cars so extraordinary to Buford and Steve. They, were, after all, just a mode of transportation. But, something about this car felt…different, special even. He thought about his own Honda Civic. Steve had once called it "the most boring car in the world."

"Buford?"

The burly teen peered at his best friend around the side of the hood. "Mmm?"

"Do you think those guys bully me because I'm not cool?" Baljeet asked.

Buford seemed surprised at the question. "Uh…I doubt that's specifically why they bully you…it's mostly because you're a wimp…but I suppose it's a contributing factor in targeting you." He retreated under the hood again and returned to his work.

Baljeet thought about what his friend had said for a moment.

"Buford?"

"What?" This time, Buford continued working.

"Do you think they would stop bullying me if I was cool?"

"Maybe, but I highly doubt you could ever be cool. If you looked up 'Lame' in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of you next to it."

Baljeet walked down the side of the Superchicken, running his hand along the bottom of the window frame and across the top of the deck lid. He stopped when his hand reached the spoiler.

"Buford?"

"What do you want now?"

Baljeet almost didn't ask his question. Finally he said, "Would this car make me cool?"

"Duh," was all Buford said.

Baljeet walked back around the car to the driver's door and looked through the window, shading the glass with his hand. On the dash was the brown cowboy hat.

"Done!" he heard Buford announce as the bully closed the hood.

Baljeet opened the driver's door, climbed in, and listened to the catch close smoothly behind him. He placed his hands on the steering wheel and felt the grips. His moment was interrupted when Buford pulled the door open.

"What do you think you're doing, runt?"

Baljeet did not answer. His eyes drifted again to the hat resting on the dashboard. He grabbed it and placed it on his head. He found the keys still in the ignition where Buford had left them.

"I am going for a drive."

Baljeet started the car.

"The hell you are!" the teen mechanic yelled.

Baljeet pulled the driver's door closed. Buford pulled it open again a second later and forcibly removed Baljeet from the car by grabbing the front of his shirt.

"What exactly do you think you're doin'?" Buford asked in a sarcastically calm voice.

"I am going to be cool for the first time in my life!"

"Not…what I thought you were gonna say…"

"Come on, Buford!" Baljeet pleaded. "Let me go for a drive!"

Buford thought for a moment. "Fine!" he yelled, dropping Baljeet to the ground. "But I'm comin' with ya!"

"Why?"

"Because!"

Not about to argue with that, Baljeet pulled the cowboy hat back down on his head and climbed into the driver's seat, smiling like a kid in a Pontiac Trans Am. (Because what kid wouldn't smile at that?)


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!_

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Heinz Doofenshmirtz called as he rushed to answer the knock at his door. He flung open the door and found Perry standing in his doorway, arms crossed.

_Perry!_

"Perry the Platypus!" Doof said with a start. Then, more calmly: "Did you notice that individual themes just don't seem to work well in writing?"

Perry shrugged. He adjusted the earmuffs that he had pulled down over his fedora.

"Well, I'm gonna tell the author to stop including them when we have our meeting next week," the scientist said. "What are you doing here, anyway? I didn't schedule any evil for today because I need to go shopping." Perry's expression did not change. "Seriously, there is no food in this apartment. The only thing I have in my refrigerator is a small, open box of baking soda."

Perry still did nothing.

"I need to pick up medication, too. You would not believe how many pills I have to swallow in the morning, and most of them are so big…" He stopped mid-sentence, mostly because he was not sure where he was going with his statement, partially because Perry was pointing past him at something in Doof's lab.

Heinz turned to see what Perry was pointing at. The object in question was only about three feet high, much smaller than most of Doofenshmirtz's inators, and covered with a white sheet.

"Oh, that? That's just an inator I built for later when I get back from shopping. Say…" he pointed at Perry, struck by an idea. "Why don't you come shopping with me? Come on, it'll be fun!"

Perry thought for a minute, and then gave a half-nod. He supposed shopping wasn't the worst thing in the world he could be doing, and, after all, he and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were friends.

"Great! Let me just grab my keys!" Doof ducked back inside for a moment and reappeared a moment later, keys in hand, and wearing the most ridiculous winter jacket Perry had ever seen. It was lime green and overstuffed, and Heinz even had a matching hat.

Perhaps this was a mistake.

* * *

"Do you even know how to drive a stick-shift?" Buford asked.

"Uhh…no?" Baljeet looked at the shifter. "How hard can it be?" he said, reaching for the stick.

"Stop!" A meaty hand suddenly came down on top of the shifter and Baljeet recoiled his hand. Buford did not even avert his gaze from the windshield. "Are you depressing the clutch?"

"The what?"

"The pedal left of the brake?"

"Oh." Baljeet pushed in the pedal, and then Buford removed his hand, allowing Baljeet to shift into first gear. He gently accelerated slowly out of the garage.

"This is so cool!" the Indian boy shouted excitedly.

The excitement came to a sudden end as Baljeet hit a patch of ice at the end of the driveway. The rear wheels came around as he turned left, and Baljeet screamed as he slammed on the brakes. The car spun 270 degrees, coming to a stop pointed as if Baljeet had made a right turn instead of left.

"Nice job, genius," Buford said angrily.

When Baljeet finally stopped shaking and unclenched his white-knuckled fingers from the steering wheel, he took a deep breath, and started accelerating down the road.

"If Steve asks," Buford said, folding his arms in anger, "I told you not to drive this thing and you took off when I turned my back."

* * *

"Ooh, buy one, get one 15% off!"

Dr. Doofenshmirtz grabbed the boxes from the shelf and tossed them unceremoniously into the cart, narrowly missing a fedora-less Perry, who glared.

"Sorry, Perry the Platypus."

They reached the end of the aisle and Doofenshmirtz turned toward the pharmacy department. "May I see the list, please, Perry the Platypus?"

Perry was sitting in the basket of the cart as opposed to in the child seat. He was rather enjoying stacking everything neatly around him and crossing things off Doofenshmirtz's nearly mile-long list. Except, of course, when Doof's aim hit him or managed to knock over one of his piles.

"Thank you," Doof said, taking the creased up piece of paper. "Let's see…in addition to my usual medication, which includes fish oil, calcium, omega 3, etcetera, etcetera…my doctor also recommended that I pick up some stool softener."

Perry covered his mouth, afraid he might vomit.

"Perry the Platypus, are you alright? You look a bit…green in the face."

Perry gave Heinz the "okay" sign, but did not look up.

This was _definitely _a mistake.

* * *

The Superchicken was nearing the end of Edgebrook Road, so Baljeet would be forced to turn either left or right.

"Shrimplet, do us a favor and slow down _early _this time," Buford snapped, "Please?"

"No problemo," Baljeet told him. He gently braked, pressed the clutch, and down shifted. He had only accelerated enough to reach second gear.

Baljeet tried to turn right, but hit ice again and the back wheels started to come around again.

"Yipe!"

This time, instead of freezing up and slamming on the brakes, Baljeet wrestled with the steering wheel and managed to regain control of the car.

"Sheesh," Buford let out the breath he had been holding in. "Not nearly as smooth as Steve, that's for sure, but good job, 'Jeet."

"Thank you," Baljeet said, his voice shaking a bit.

They drove down this street a ways until Baljeet decided that he would just go around the block and head back to the garage.

Baljeet turned on the right blinker. "Hey, should I see if I can drift again?"

"Absolutely n-"

Before Buford could get the words out of his mouth, Baljeet turned and prepared to turn the wheel to the left to straighten out. This corner was not as icy, however, and the car didn't slide until it was almost all the way through the turn, and it only just slid a tiny bit. Unfortunately, Baljeet was too quick to react. As soon as he felt the rear end jump out, he turned the wheel to the left and the tires immediately gripped the pavement.

_CRASH!_


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Phineas, Ferb and Isabella arrived at "Boyd's Garage" at exactly the same time Steve did. The '69 Chevelle pulled in next to the F-150 and the drivers and passengers of each vehicle disembarked and greeted each other.

"Hi, Steve!" Isabella said cheerfully as she climbed from the back seat of the Chevrolet. She closed her door and waited for Phineas to exit the passenger seat. Once he did, they took each other by the hand and walked around the car to join Ferb and Steve.

"Whoa, whoa! What's going on here?" Steve asked with a smile, pointing at Phineas and Isabella's interlaced fingers. "Did I miss something?"

Phineas and Isabella shared a confused look. Ferb paid no attention; he was polishing a headlight with his sleeve.

"I…don't think so," Phineas offered slowly.

"So…you guys aren't going out now?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Sadly, no," Isabella said, but with less sorrow in her voice than would have been expected.

"So…why are you guys holding hands?"

Phineas and Isabella looked at each other again. "Because…" Isabella started, but that was as far as she got.

"Because…" Phineas tried.

There were a few moments of awkward silence. Isabella wondered if she should just let go of Phineas's hand.

"Because…we can?" Phineas said, sounding unsure of himself.

"Yeah, that's not really an answer," Steve said. "Guys and girls don't hold hands unless they're dating, so…what's the deal?"

"Are you saying that a guy and a girl who are best friends can't hold hands?" Isabella asked.

"I'm not saying they can't. I can honestly say, there was a girl or two I was pretty good friends with…you know, before all my friends abandoned me…that I would have liked to hold hands with just on, like, a casual basis," Steve said, flipping his hand in a way similar to Doofenshmirtz. "I suggested it to one of them once, and she didn't talk to me for two weeks."

"Why?" This from Phineas.

"Because, just like I said, guys and girls who are just friends typically don't hold hands."

"Have you ever seen the movie _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_?" Phineas asked Steve.

"I can't say that I have."

"I saw most of it on T.V. a while back. I always wanted to see the whole thing, but somehow, I never did. Anyway, there are three main characters: Ferris Bueller, obviously, his best friend, Cameron, and Bueller's girlfriend, Sloane."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Steve asked.

"Of course. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where Ferris leaves his friends to go sing on a parade float. While he's gone, Cameron and Sloane are walking down the street and talking. And the whole time, they're holding hands. They aren't cheating on Ferris…they aren't secretly in love or something. They're simply holding hands because they're friends, and I don't see anything wrong with that," Phineas finished.

Steve was unsure how to respond. He just stared at the two of them standing there in front of him, hands tightly clasped.

"Wasn't that movie made in the eighties, when everything was more, I don't know, laid back?" he finally asked.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, I don't see any reason why a boy and a girl who are best friends can't hold hands. The issue is that no one actually does it."

"He kinda has a point," Isabella said to Phineas. Then, to Steve: "This is different because Phineas and I aren't normal everyday best friends."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, tell him Phineas."

"Uh…" Phineas was taken by surprise by this and wasn't sure what to say. "I guess it's different…because…in our case, Isabella is in love with me." Isabella blushed. "And because I haven't decided that I'm ready to go out with her…I feel like I should at least show her a little affection…because I know she appreciates it…and…I guess…I do, too."

There was a long pause here, which was interrupted when Steve asked, "Are you finished with that thought, or was there more?"

"No, not quite…I guess…I'm sorta…glad…that she's in love with me…and…I like holding her hand…even if we are, for the moment…still just friends."

"Oh, Phineas," Isabella sighed contently and tilted her head to rest on his shoulder. Phineas looked into her eyes and smiled back at her, giving her hand a little squeeze.

"Okay, this is starting to get weird," Steve groaned, and he walked over to open the garage door. The space behind the door was empty.

"Superchicken's not here. Guess Buford finished. Didn't really expect him to be working on it, but…hey…where is Buford?…and Baljeet?"

"They were both here when you left?" Isabella asked.

"Yeah, Buford was putting a new air cleaner…" Steve had been looking right at Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb, but now he turned his head slightly and looked out at the road. There were many tire tracks from when Steve drifted out of the garage in the Mustang or Trans Am, but there was one that stood out.

He walked past his friends and looked at the tire tracks. They were obviously very fresh and looped around, as if the car that had made them had lost control and spun.

Steve walked hurriedly back up the driveway and around the back of the garage to the little parking garage, followed closely by Phineas, Ferb and Isabella.

"Steve?" Phineas called to him.

Steve did not answer. They reached the little parking shed and Steve pulled open the bi-swing front door. Inside were the black-and-yellow #17 Mustang and the red-and-white #21 Ford Galaxy.

"Guys?"

"Yeah?" Phineas and Isabella responded.

"Where's the Superchicken?"

* * *

Dr. Doofenshmirtz unlocked the door to his penthouse apartment, balancing a bag on his arm so he could manipulate the key with his fingers. He and Perry walked through the door and set down the many bags they were carrying on the kitchen table.

"Whew!" Doofenshmirtz wiped his brow and collapsed into a chair. "Thanks for your help, Perry the Platypus. Want a glass of water?"

Perry nodded and Doof stood, removing a glass from the cabinet, and proceeding to fill it with ice and water.

Perry smiled in thanks and gulped down the water. When he lowered the glass, he pointed into Doof's workshop, where the small sheet-covered inator sat.

"Oh, you want to see my inator?" Doof asked.

Perry nodded.

"Well, sure, come on." Heinz waved Perry to follow him. When they reached the inator, Doof whipped off the sheet and exclaimed "BEHOLD! Oh, sorry, I forgot, this one isn't evil, so I don't need to shout for this…Actually, I'm not sure that I can get through this without shouting. Is it okay with you if I do this as if it were a normal evil scheme?"

Perry shrugged and motioned for him to continue.

"Thanks, Perry the Platypus," Doofenshmirtz said. "Here, let me start over." He threw the sheet back over the inator.

"Okay, here we go, take two." Doof yanked off the sheet again. "BEHOLD! THE REVIVINATOR!"

_Duh-da-da!_

"You see, after that whole incident where I blew up Major Monogram's car over the summer, I never really fully recovered. I broke a number of bones and a few of my internal organs were bruised from the concussion wave. That's why I started having to take so many pills. But they're so inconvenient to take. I mean, have you seen the size of some of these pills? They're like swallowing really old, hard erasers!

"So that's why I built the Revivinator. You see, one blast from this baby, and my body will be rejuvenated to it's former state, prior to that explosion. And now that I think about it," he said to Perry," I need your help with this one. I can't pull the trigger to fire it and stand where it can hit me at the same time, so I need you to shoot me. Can you do that for me?"

Perry nodded.

"Oh, thank you, Perry the Platypus!" Doof said. "Let's do it right now!"

The Doctor took a few excited steps in front of the machine as Perry took his place behind the ray.

"Okay, whenever you're ready, Perry the Platypus."

Perry took aim with the viewfinder and pulled the trigger. A bolt of yellow lightning sprouted from the tip of the inator's conical focusing structure and zapped Doofenshmirtz.

"AAAaaaAHhHHHhhAhhAAaahh!" Doof screamed as the electricity crackled around his body, conducting for several seconds before finally dissipating. He was motionless, every hair on his body standing on end.

Perry's eyes widened with worry. Finally, Doofenshmirtz moved again.

"Ah, I feel like I'm 49 again!" Doof sighed happily. "Thank you, Perry the Platypus."

Perry nodded glanced at his watch. It was nearly 5:30. He jumped down from his place behind the Revivinator and headed for the door, waving goodbye as he did so.

"Oh, you're leaving? Already?"

Perry nodded. He pointed to his watch. He usually was already home by now, and he didn't want Phineas and Ferb to worry.

"Well, okay, then," Doof said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Perry gave him a thumbs up and left, closing the door behind him.

"Aw. He really is a good friend."

Doofenshmirtz tried to take a step towards his inator and found he couldn't move his feet.

"Huh? What's going on?"

The electricity that had shot through his body had melted the soles of his shoes, and when the rubber cooled, it stuck to the floor where Doof was standing.

"Aw, man! CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS, EVEN THOUGH THIS IS ENTIRELY MY FAULT! "

* * *

"I cannot believe I, of all people, could be so stupid."

"Less talky, more pushy."

Buford insisted on steering the Superchicken back to the garage. He did not exactly trust Baljeet to do it at the moment. They rolled down both windows and pushed against the "A" post on either side of the car, Buford reaching in through the open window to steer.

"How could I be so stupid?" Baljeet moaned again for the umpteenth time.

"Baljeet, if you don't stop whining, you're gonna to have to worry about worse things than Steve's wrath."

They continued pushing in silence. At the slow speed, Buford had to crank hard on the steering wheel to turn the car on to Edgebrook Road. They could see the garage in the distance.

"Have you ever actually seen Steve angry before?" Baljeet asked.

Buford thought for a moment. "There was one time, when we were restoring that Olds' Cutlass, he torqued too hard on a rusted nut with the ratchet and cracked the socket. That's about it."

"And how mad did he get?"

"Not much. But, he broke a six dollar 5/8th socket. You just crashed a $75,000 car."

Baljeet flinched when he heard the price tag. He was silent for the rest of the long trip down Edgebrook Road.

* * *

"Uh…Steve?"

Steve, Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella had walked back out in front of the garage. Steve followed Isabella's pointing finger to where Buford and Baljeet could be seen pushing the damaged Trans Am up the street, about fifty yards away.

"What…the heck…happened?" Steve muttered under his breath.

They all ran out to the end of the driveway and helped the two exhausted teens push the Superchicken up the sloped driveway. Isabella ran and opened the overhead door so the car could be pushed inside.

When the door had been closed again behind the six people and Pontiac, Steve surveyed the damage, his face expressionless.

"What, uh…what happened?"

"It was all Baljeet!" Buford yelled, pointing his finger accusingly. Baljeet sighed and hung his head.

"Really? You did this?" Steve asked, not quite believing it.

"Yes," Baljeet moaned. He sounded like he was about to cry.

"Shrimplet here thought the car would make him cool, so he took it for a joyride and tried to drift," Buford explained.

"And you went with him because…?"

"Uh…no reason."

Steve looked at the damage again. He tried to raise the hood, and after a bit of a struggle against the bent metal, managed to lift it.

"I assume you were pushing it because it wouldn't start."

"Yeah," Buford replied. "It won't even crank."

Steve was silent again. He slammed the hood down.

"Baljeet," Isabella started, "why did you think this car would make you cool?"

"Because Buford said it was cool," he wailed.

"Why did you feel like you need to be cool?" she asked.

"Those stupid bullies at school!"

There was a collective "Ooohhhh," from Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella. Surprisingly, Steve was the next to speak.

"So…you feel like if you were cool, these bullies would leave you alone?"

"Yes."

"And you think this car will make you cool? I thought you didn't think too much of cars."

"Well…I don't…but…this one…I feel like there's something special about it. Like…if I drove it…I don't know…"

Steve walked over and stood beside Baljeet. "Well, if you think it will make you cool," Steve said, "Then it's yours."

Baljeet (and everyone else in the room) looked confused.

"What?" Baljeet asked.

"It's yours," Steve said. "Take it. You crash it, you get it repaired somewhere else. I don't want anything to do with fixing this. I restore cars, I don't repair crash damage."

"Really? You're just going to give it to me?" Baljeet was grinning ear to ear.

"Uh-huh," Steve nodded hesitantly. "I doubt you'll be very cool with a smashed up Trans Am that doesn't start, but it's yours."

"Wow," Baljeet gasped. "Thank you."

"Now you just gotta figure out how to drive it home, genius," Buford reminded him.

"Oh, yeah."

* * *

"I can't believe my non-existent evil plot was thwarted by my own invention," Dr. Doofenshmirtz lamented as he stepped out of his melted shoes. "I guess this is what I get for trying to do something good for a change."

He examined his machine, relatively pointless now.

"Hmm. What could I do with this thing? Well…if this was the end of a normal evil scheme, it would fire once, and then blow up."

Heinz smiled at the irony of destroying his own invention. He pushed it out onto the balcony, shivering from the cold.

"Here we go! This is actually kind of exciting! I never get to blow things up myself."

Doof placed a hand on the rotating head of the inator and gave it a good push. The entire top section rotated around it's central axis a few times and came to a stop in a random direction.

"Now, I'll fire it once." Doofenshmirtz walked over to where the back of the inator now sat and pulled the trigger. The electrical bolt shot across the city in a great arc and disappeared.

"And now…" Doof pressed the self-destruct button and the inator began to whine as it overloaded. He ran for cover and then turned back to watch it explode.

**_BOOM!_**

The shockwave expanded outward in a perfect sphere and knocked Doofenshmirtz backwards against the wall. The vibration traveled down the wall into the infrastructure of the balcony, weakened from years of exploding machines. There was a deafening cracking sound.

"Oh, great. This is what I get for trying to keep the routine without Perry the Platypus."

The balcony's floor joists warped and bent, and eventually broke, sending the cantilevered structure plummeting to the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

**_CRASH!_**

* * *

The yellow bolt of crackling electricity from the Revivinator bounced off of a store-front window and changed directions, heading toward Edgebrook Road. It struck the hose bib on the side of "Boyd's Garage" and traveled through the pipes, exiting out of the floor drain directly beneath the Trans Am.

"What is happening?" Baljeet shrieked, as lightning coursed around the car.

Everyone took a step back and watched as the crumpled front bumper and hood morphed back to it's original shape.

Finally, the electricity dissipated. Everyone stared at the front of the car. It was perfect.

"What just happened?" Isabella asked.

Buford nudged Baljeet's shoulder. "Hey, runt, see if it starts."

Baljeet climbed into the driver's seat. The keys were still in the ignition. He twisted the key forward and the engine fired immediately.

"Hey, it runs!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Steve opened his mouth to say something.

"No take-backs!" Baljeet quickly yelled.

Steve closed his mouth, a disappointed look on his face.

"Ngrgrgrgrgrgrgrg."

"Oh, there you are Perry," Phineas said, bending down to scratch the Platypus on the head.

* * *

Doofenshmirtz pulled himself from the pile of wreckage on the ground.

"Huh. That contractor was right. If you don't replace your joists every 400 explosions, you _can _risk damage to your balcony."

**I believe there are about eleven or twelve total people out there that have read all three of my previous stories all the way through, so to those people, thank you! However, none of those eleven or twelve people have reviewed my stories and I crave your opinions. PLEASE! I'M BEGGING! Review my stories!**

**And now, for the few of you who are reading and (hopefully) enjoying my series, here is your sneak-peak for the next story!**

**The title is _Deep Sea Fishin' for Barracuda _(It has been posted). However, it has absolutely nothing to do with fishing or Barracuda. Unfortunately, there will be no Perry/Doof plot line because I can't think of one. However, there will be more than one plot line.**

**The first stars Isabella and, to a lesser extent, Steve.**

**The second features Phineas and Candace. I am really excited to be able to include Candace in the story again. She (and Isabella) are my favorite characters to write for.**

**P.S. If anyone happens to be wondering why the fireside girls or Linda and Lawrence never appear, here is your answer: The characters of Adyson, Gretchen, Ginger, Holly, Katie, and Milly are great, but the show hasn't really developed them much and I hate writing for non-established characters. I don't mind in Steve's case, because he is basically me, older, with a different name and a completely made-up backstory. As for Linda and Lawrence, I just don't see them as important to the story, so I don't include them.**

**Until next time:**

**EDD17SP**


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